Saving Water
Re “Water Conservation Efforts Begin to Pay Off in Southland,” June 15: Saving 9 billion gallons of water a year with new toilets is good, but it represents only about 1% of the water used by urban Southern California. One inch of rainfall over just the city of Los Angeles is about twice that much water.
The real potential for conserving water is more outside the house than inside the house. The automatic sprinkler systems that operate even when it is raining are perhaps our biggest waste of water. Ten or more times as much water as with new toilets can be conserved if irrigation of plantings were applied only according to need. Soil improvement can help achieve that, as too much water runs off soil instead of into soil.
ARTHUR WALLACE
Los Angeles
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